The present invention relates to the field of pharmaceutical packaging, and more particularly to inserting a resilient material into a container after a plurality of pills have been packaged therein.
Medications or vitamins are often conveniently provided in the form of pills, i.e., tablets or capsules packaged in a container, typically a bottle. Pills provide uniform dose size in a convenient form for administration. Pills may, however, be damaged due to rough handling of the bottle in transit. A solution to the handling problem has been practiced for many years by inserting a ball of cotton into the headspace of the bottle above the pills so that the pills are held under gentle pressure to prevent movement. While overcoming the potential damage problem, cotton has a drawback of being hydrophilic, thus tending to absorb moisture. If the cotton filler absorbs moisture from the pills, the pills could change chemically with a reduction from the intended amount of moisture and could be more easily, or spontaneously, cracked. Alternatively, if cotton already having a high moisture content is placed in a pill bottle, adverse effects of excess moisture in the pills could result. Cotton also has the drawback of being accidentally torn during the removal process. While it has been recognized that replacing cotton with a plastic material could overcome the problems indicated above, no commercially practical solution has been developed to date.
A hydrophobic, compressible, resilient, tube is advanced in flattened form from a roll supply to a cutter to be cut into desired lengths. Each cut length of flat tube is converted to a round cross sectional shape, inserted horizontally into a compressing cavity and axially compressed to compact its length. The compressed tube is inserted with its axis oriented horizontally into the headspace above a quantity of pills and below the neck of a container and allowed to expand. The expanded tube occupies the headspace and keeps the pills from movement when the container is handled.